and full disclosure, erin, tonight, i am reporting on montana from california. i flew out this morning not long after the governor flew in. erin? and of course you put a locater up to say where you were the whole time. thank you very much. next, inside the u.s. space force. 71 new recruits in the first ever boot camp for what s called the guardians. and government authorities in saudi arabia confiscate children s rainbow colored toys, even backpacks and crayons, because they say they re promoting homosexuality. at you . woah! look out! [submarine rising out ofof water] [minions making noise] minions are bitin today. (sung) liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.
town of guardener fearing for their future. it became this ghost town. there s nobody here. the last time the national spotlight was so on the state might have been in 2017 when jen forte body slammed a reporter during his congressional campaign. sick and tired of you guys. this week s game of governor where s waldo has echoes of senator ted cruz heading to cancun last year during a cold snap and power outages in his home state of texas. cruz caught heat. today in montana, the governor is now back in the saddle. montanans are resilient. we re going to get this rebuilt. but the governor was vacationing in italy when it was all washed away. now, this morning, his office said that he delegated his authority to the lieutenant governor, quote, with whom he worked closely over the last four days to take swift, decisive action. i will just note there is an eight-hour time difference between montana and italy.
one correction we have to make tonight. earlier, we intended to show you a photo of georgia s chief operating officer in the office of the secretary of state. instead, we mistakenly showed you a picture of retired judge lutig. thanks very much for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next, donald trump lashing out at the january 6th committee with lies. this as the committee struggles with lining up key witnesses. and new video of the missing americans fighting in ukraine. tonight, i m going to speak to the mother of one of the missing soldiers. plus, he wasn t in montana when record floods shout down yellow stone national park. where was the governor? let s go outfront. good evening. i m erin burnett. tonight, trump taekes on the committee, ranting about the hearings for a significant
high waters along the yellow stone river that closed the national park. we are closely monitoring the flooding in south central montana, he tweeted monday. didn t say where he was monitoring the flooding from. turns out, it wasn t anywhere inside montana. questions started tuesday morning when the lieutenant governor, not the governor, signed the state s disaster declaration. the office told local media he left the country saturday with his wife on a personal trip. so the day before the waters rose and he d be back asap. they wouldn t say where he was citing security protocals. these floods are a big deal for montana. millions of dollars worth of damage, the state s north entrance to the national park will be closed for months leaving residents of the gateway
he said there s days when your feet are sore and your knees are aching and the weather s awful and terrain is treacherous and you have to embrace the suck because it s not going to last forever and you ll get to the top and the view is going to be worth it. it s going to be awesome. and so i m embracing the suck and trusting the process. well, thank you so much for speaking to me. you re in my thoughts with your worry thank you. we feel all the thoughts and prayers of all the people out there and there s such a comfort and source of strength to us and i m sure to alex, too, i m sure he can feel it. he and andy. thank you so much for talking to us. all right. thank you, bunny. next, parts of montana ravaged by historic flooding but the governor was missing in action until now. it turns out he was in italy. and basic training now underway for the u.s. space force. cnn has an exclusive look at the newest branch of the united states military.